Record number of Australasians at US Women's Open
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2004 US Women's Open | Preview | 29 Jun 2004
Twelve Australians and one New Zealander line up at this week’s US Women’s Open at the Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, Massachusetts, which is likely the largest representation by Australasia in any US Women’s Open.
Of those, Karrie Webb, Rachel Teske, Wendy Doolan were all exempt from the qualifying procedure while Shani Waugh, Katherine Hull, Michelle Ellis, Mardi Lunn, Loraine Lambert, Kylie Pratt, Anne Marie Knight, Joanne Mills, Lynette Brooky and Leah Hart all were forced to qualify at various venues throughout the USA in either local or regional qualifying or both. Kylie Pratt and Loraine Lambert and done it the hard way getting though both stages to make the field.
Pratt plays the Futures Tour, Lynette Brooky and Anne Marie Knight play the Ladies European Tour while the others, with the exception of Leah Hart, play the LPGA Tour.
For Hart this will be her second US Women’s Open, having gone through qualifying last year while playing collegiate golf at Augusta State. From Toowoomba west of Brisbane, Hart transferred from Augusta State to Auburn University after her first season of collegiate golf in the United States and has recently turned professional. Her form this past season has not been quite as sharp as that of her freshman year in college but she has again shown quite some game by just qualifying for this prestigious event.
